Agency exit & scaling — The agency you sell is built years before the sale.
Most agency founders go to market unprepared and find out what the business is worth the hard way. We work with founders one to two years out — on the growth, the margins and the founder-independence that decide the number — and then through the process itself.
- 20+ years operating
- Built and exited a 7-figure agency
- Exit via Employee Ownership Trust
- B Corp founder
What the work covers
Three strands, run in whatever order the agency needs. Most founders start with the first and find it sets the agenda for the other two.
Exit readiness
Buyers price risk, and most of what makes an agency risky is fixable given time. Client concentration, contract terms, undocumented process, a founder sitting in the middle of every relationship. We go through the business the way an acquirer will — a year or two before you need the answer — and tell you plainly what is holding the number down and what it would take to move it.
Growth that raises the multiple
Revenue growth and enterprise value are not the same thing. Retained work is worth more than project work, a specialism is worth more than a general offer, and margin is worth more than headcount. We work on pricing, positioning and the service mix so that the growth you put in between now and the sale lands in the valuation, rather than leaving you with a bigger agency that is just as hard to sell.
A business that runs without you
The largest single discount applied to an agency is the founder. If the relationships, the pitching and the quality control all run through you, a buyer is purchasing a job rather than a company. This is the slowest part of the work and the reason it starts early — a leadership team that decides things without you, delivery that holds when you are not in it, and management accounts that stand up to diligence.
From first note to working together
A conversation
Forty-five minutes on the agency, the numbers, and what you want to do and roughly when. No deck required, and no obligation on either side at the end of it.
An honest valuation view
A short piece of work: what the agency would plausibly fetch today, on what basis, and the specific things holding that number down. You get it in writing whether or not we go any further.
The work itself
An agreed number of days a month against the gaps we found — growth, margin, leadership, process. Fixed monthly fee, reviewed quarterly, and a plan written so that someone else could pick it up.
Through the process
Preparing what a buyer will ask for, sitting on your side of diligence, and holding the line when the offer moves late. We have been on the sell side of this and know where it gets uncomfortable.
This is probably you if
- You are a year or two from wanting out, and would rather prepare than react.
- You have had an approach and no real idea whether the number in front of you is a good one.
- Growth has flattened and you cannot tell whether the answer is to invest or to sell.
- The agency does not function for long without you in it.
- One or two clients account for more of your revenue than you would happily say out loud.
- You want the team to benefit from the exit, and want to understand employee ownership properly before ruling it in or out.
Agency exit and scaling — common questions
When should I start preparing to sell my agency?
One to two years before you want to be out. Almost everything that moves the price — client concentration, recurring revenue, margin, a leadership team that operates without you — takes that long to change in a way a buyer will believe. Founders who start six months out are not preparing, they are tidying, and it shows in the offer.
What is my agency actually worth?
It depends far more on the shape of the business than on its size. Agencies are typically valued on a multiple of adjusted profit, and the multiple moves enormously with how repeatable the revenue is, how concentrated the client base is, and how much of the business runs through the founder. Two agencies on identical revenue can be worth very different amounts. Working out which one you are is the first piece of work we do.
Do you only work with founders who are selling?
No. Plenty of this work is worth doing whether or not you ever sell — an agency with better margins, retained revenue and a leadership team that runs the day-to-day is a better agency to own. Preparing for an exit and building something you would be happy to keep are largely the same project, which is the honest reason to start it early.
What about an Employee Ownership Trust?
It is a genuine option and an underused one. An EOT sells the business to a trust held for the benefit of the employees, which can suit founders who care what happens to the team and want a defined, less adversarial process than a trade sale. It is not right for everyone — it is generally slower to pay out and needs a business that can service the consideration. We have been through one, and can tell you where it is genuinely good and where it is oversold.
Do you take a percentage of the sale?
No. We are not brokers and we do not earn more if you sell, which matters because the right answer is sometimes that you should not. The work is a fixed monthly fee against an agreed scope, and the valuation view that usually precedes it is priced on its own so you can stop there if that is all you needed.
Tell us where the agency is.
Revenue, roughly how it splits, and what you are hoping to do and when. That is enough to start — we read everything ourselves and reply to most notes within a couple of working days.
Or email hello@lode.venturesThanks — that's with us.
We read everything ourselves and reply to most notes within a couple of working days.